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COWZA 2025 Autumn Cup Playoffs: Unexpected Results Excite the Community

Originally posted on Total Apex Gaming | By Devin Morris | Last updated Jul 7, 2025 9:50 AM ET

Competitive Overwatch South Africa (COWZA) has run local online Overwatch tournaments for several years. COWZA, in collaboration with the African Cyber Gaming League (ACGL), is running events for South African Overwatch in 2025. The Autumn Cup is the second competitive tournament held this year. The cup began with twelve teams split into three groups. The top two teams from each group qualified for the playoffs. The two best-performing third-place teams advanced alongside them to a playoff weekend.

COWZA Autumn Cup Playoff Rules and Format

Teams participating in COWZA tournaments must field at least three SSA players in any given match. An SSA player is anyone who has South African citizenship or lives in a Southern African country. The eight teams are seeded into a double-elimination bracket. All matches were first to 3, except for the Grand Finals, which were first to 4. The playoff matches were played on July 6th and 7th.

Autumn Cup Playoff Results

EEA Pangolins and EEA Deslexik Geese had to forfeit their matches due to a lack of availability for the weekend. The placements for the weekend were:

1st: Inglorious Blasters
2nd: Anomaly
3rd: Pink Salamanders
4th: SV Vanquish
5th-6th: EEA Ducklings and Team Nameless
7th-8th: EEA Pangolins and EEA Deslexik Geese

A Tightly Contested Tournament

Image of Overwatch 2, courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment

South African Overwatch has seen plenty of tournaments, with almost all of the results being decisive victories. The Autumn Cup Playoffs did not follow that narrative, with most of the games decided by one or two fights. The Pink Salamanders versus Anomaly matches were a joy to watch. Both series went the distance.

Inglorious Blasters were the favorites to win the tournament. After their victory in the Summer Series and dominance throughout COWZA’s history, very few expected them to lose. They did not disappoint, not losing a series, but did not go unblemished. Anomaly, who has been on the outskirts of the upper echelon, broke into the top two for the first time. With a changed roster from last year, they continue to improve and strive to dethrone Inglorious Blasters.

Looking Forward

COWZA, in collaboration with ACGL, has more tournaments on the horizon. The Winter Series, the Last Chance Qualifier, and the finals will happen later this year. ACGL, themselves, have plans to run monthly Overwatch Cups, rotating between Stadium and Competitive rules. All streamed matches for COWZA tournaments will take place on ZAOverwatch for Twitch and OverwatchZA on YouTube.

This article first appeared on Total Apex Gaming and was syndicated with permission.

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